- U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on 15 April that Washington would not renew exemptions that allowed the purchase of Iranian and Russian oil without U.S. sanctions.
“We will not renew the general licence for Russian oil and we will not renew the general licence for Iranian oil. This was oil that was on the water before 11 March. So it’s all been used,” Bessent said at a White House briefing.
On April 14, Reuters reported that the U.S. had no plans to renew a 30-day sanctions exemption expiring this week on Iranian oil at sea, and allowed a similar exemption on Russian oil to run out over the weekend.
As Politico reported, the sanctions on Russian oil came back into effect after a special licence expired on April 11. It allowed for the sale of oil that was already in transit and was temporary in nature.
The US had earlier discussed extending the authorisation, but some senators called for the move to be scrapped, pointing out that Russia had received about four billion dollars from oil deals in a month.
The general licences were issued amid rising oil prices due to the US-Israeli war with Iran and the situation in the Strait of Hormuz. After the failure of the US-Iran talks in Islamabad, Brent crude prices rose again, exceeding $100 per barrel.